New Perceptions
by SnowStormSkies
Summary: "I'm not completely useless, you know." Something caused Kelly to change how she treated Annabelle. What was it? Sometimes, it's the little moments. First film.


**Title:** New Perceptions.

**Author: **SnowStormSkies

**Universe: **St Trinian's

**Theme/Topic: **What happened immediately after the first school challenge to revise Kelly's view of Annabelle?

**Rating: **T. Some mentions of alcohol and criminal activity.

**Characters: **Kelly, Annabelle. Sleeping Tania and Tara, with brief mentions of Polly and Miss Fritton.

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Not really. If you haven't watched the film, then it's a Spoiler pretty much.

**Word Count: **952 words.

**Time: **30 minutes.

**Summary: **Something caused Kelly to change how she treated Annabelle – what was it? This is my interpretation. First film.

**Dedication: **Nobody in particular.

**A/N: **Not a lot to say really. I'm here because my class has been cancelled at the moment – hence why I'm getting this out four days early to you.

**Distribution: **No. Thieves beware. DIAF is a possible scenario for your death.

**New Perceptions**

They had won. Holy God on Earth, they had won. First step towards the final and all that hash but it was a victory in the face of victory non-the-less. Slightly bittersweet, if Kelly was honest with herself but that was by the by. 'Half a bar' as Flash put it was worth a little sour tasting victory in a stupid school quiz. Kelly drained the last of her coffee and let her tense neck and shoulders relax. It felt like she had been riding on adrenaline for the last three days – and it was finally starting to leave her system. She'd sleep well tonight.

This was just the beginning though, she cautioned herself. Every single problem that could occur in this mad-cap scenario needed to be address, and several more than were distinctly impossible still popped up at the back of her mind. Everything was still to play for, but the only thing in Kelly's mind was a sense of impending exhaustion and a strong desire for a nightcap of whiskey or two.

She exited the dressing room, heels clacking on the wooden flooring. A crew member directed her to the Grand Hall – where the filming was still going on based on the red light bathing the corridor in an eerie glow. Opening the doors, it was apparent that there was still wrapping up and editing to be done, and she was ushered to a bench, next to Miss Fritton. She waited impatiently for the 'Get-Out-Of-Jail' card the producers were _still_ withholding as the girls were waved to be quiet and still.

She looked over at the other side, and anyone of a less steely disposition might have cowered at the angry glares, spite filled faces and gestured offers to do something she wasn't _really_ all that interested in with her middle finger. It might be an idea to evacuate the St Trinian's girls first and quickly – the Ampleforth division looked more than a _little_ rough and ready to square up to the other side. While Kelly was confident that even the first years could wipe the floor with the other lot in green, starting a fight was not going to endear them to anybody and if they got booted from the competition… well, that would be the beginning of the end, as they said.

A woman wearing a headset and a crew shirt waved at the St Trinian's side to stand and file out, row by row. Evidently someone had agreed with Kelly's thoughts about the possibility of a bloodbath. St Trinian's girls _never_ back down from a fight. Never.

She turned to wake up the twins, curled up on the bench behind her. Unfortunately, last nights thievery expedition (the very same one that left Kelly with a raging headache and a damned longing for her bed not to mention the ever increasing urge to drain a bottle of whiskey), had left them wiped out. St Trinian's girls they might be, but over fifty hours awake would leave any eleven year old dead to the world. Kelly shook them gently, tapped their cheeks, even pulled on two or three blond plaits but nothing stirred them. The woman with the headset reappeared, taping her watch and finger clicking – they were supposed to be gone. _Now._

Weirdly, for such chronic adrenaline judges, both Tania and Tara brought whole new meanings to 'deep sleeping'; they were now approaching levels of sleep usually seen in coma patients. Wonderful. She absently pulled on a pigtail to see if it would wake up her charge, but nothing. Evidently dreams were more important than wakefulness at the moment.

Rolling her eyes, Kelly leaned forward, grabbed the closest twin under her arms and hoisted which ever one it was onto her hip. It was a good job they were little first years – any bigger and she wouldn't have been able to do this. The woman with the headset reappeared yet again, whispering something about having to leave now before disappearing into the mass of 'backstage'. Rather unfortunately, while the twin she held (Tania, she guessed) was relatively light, there was no way she was going to carry both of them. Readjusting her grip on Tania, she reached around for the mobile attatched to her hip, only to realise that she'd left it with Polly the night before, when she had been helping the twins, and as of now, had still not retrieved it. Stifling a curse, she was about to snag another first year to go and fetch a Chav or a Geek – (both Posh Totty and the Emos were fundamentally _useless_ when it came to any sort of heavy lifting) when a pair of arms, covered in a neatly pressed set of shirt sleeves, button demurely at the cuffs came into view. They hauled up Tara, settling her onto a hip that was covered by a school shirt of a modest length. A little less elegantly than herself, perhaps, but no less welcome for it.

Annabelle's determined gaze met her own as Kelly stared back, one eyebrow quirked in an unsaid query.

"I'm not _completely_ useless, you know."

Well, wasn't _that_ a surprise. She made a mental note to revise her apparent misconceptions about the other girl. Yet again. She really was getting rather intrigued by this constantly shifting girl in front ogf her.

Hoisting her sleeping cargo, Kelly treated irate crew member who was trying to chivvy them along to an icy glare, and swept out of the room to follow the line of straggling first and second years. It was hard to sweep out of the room with a child on her hip in high heels but she managed it.

Behind her, Annabelle followed, step for step.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it.


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